Although Hurricane Ernesto is not expected to hit the United States, much of the nation's East Coast will experience dangerous rip currents at the beaches influenced by the storm.
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00:00Ryan Werneth to discuss the rip current safety and you're making us jealous you know with all
00:04these warm temperatures being out on the beach this morning you say it's already feeling pretty hot.
00:10Hey good morning from sunny warm Cocoa Beach thanks for having us. No problem I do want to
00:15start off quickly with of course Debbie last week I know across Myrtle Beach a lot of the coastal
00:19communities the water was so rough and the lifeguards were out and monitoring but people
00:24are still going in can you speak to that at all about you know people at the end of the day kind
00:28of just doing what they want to do and not listening? Oh that's a great point to make.
00:35The most important thing that we like to get out is always know before you go that's something
00:39people we do at home a little homework go online find out where the lifeguards are
00:43swim in front of a lifeguard because your chance of drowning for a lifeguard are 1 in 18 million
00:47but yes we do find people they'll come to the beach unprepared they didn't do any of their
00:51homework they'll they'll pop out on the beach somewhere where there aren't lifeguards which
00:55is very problematic and they go out into the water not knowing the conditions not knowing their
00:59limitations you know you need to learn to swim America and when you get caught in a rip current
01:04it can be very scary so it's very important that you do some homework and find out about the
01:07conditions of the area and check your weather and make sure that you're going to have a bright sunny
01:12day and there are no rip currents. You said that a lot better than I did without people paying
01:17attention but yeah doing your homework making sure you know what's going on not just the weather on
01:20the sand but also the conditions of the water which brings us to our next question here
01:24how can a swimmer recognize a rip current and whether or not they're caught in one?
01:32That's a fantastic question every beach is a little bit different and I like to talk about
01:36our beach everywhere there's a dip there's a rip a rip is a deep area like a ditch where the water's
01:42flowing out when you have two sandbars what happens is people are playing on that sandbar
01:46the next thing you know they step into that rip current which is the water over their head in
01:50most cases and it's pulling you away from shore not under the thing that you need to know is not
01:55to panic you need to stay calm wait for help if you're a little exhausted can't get yourself out
02:00but if you swim parallel left to right you get back to those sandbars you can make your way back
02:04in. A lot of people probably do instantly panic right because it's probably a really scary
02:09situation to be in so can you give anyone you know what you would do if you're actually caught in
02:14there and give them some some safety tips here to help if they are caught in this rip current?
02:21Sure it's very important you know panicking doing anything you just kind of lose your mind you don't
02:25know exactly what's going on so if you stay calm rip currents don't take you under like some people
02:29might think they used to call it the undertow it just takes you away from shore and will let you go
02:34if you float and stay calm and like I said if you're a little tired and you start waving from
02:38for help someone on the beach might have a flotation device like this we have these up
02:43and down the coast in Florida and they could get that out to you and flotation saves lives
02:48and you remember this folks drowning can be prevented if you do your homework and you
02:52swim in front of lifeguards and do all the things that's necessary and identifying the rip currents
02:56and staying out of harm's way and if you are in a rip current not panic you won't drown.